tory of Dunbar, MacMaster and Co.,
notwithstanding the most tempting inducements, as set forth in my
letters from Ireland, has strangled enterprise, except in the North.
The ceaseless agitation of the revolutionary party has given rise to a
feeling of insecurity which deters capitalists from investing money in
Ireland. And it is only fair to say that a large majority of the most
intelligent men of every political colour concur in attributing much
of the poverty of Ireland to unrestricted Free Trade. Thus a variety
of causes have created land hunger, with its resulting land clamour,
which has brought about extraordinary legislation--extraordinary
because going far beyond the principles recognised by Republican
America, which in the first article of its Constitution draws the line
thus:--"_No State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of
contracts._" Well might Lord Salisbury, in extending the Land Purchase
Act, carefully dissociate the Conservative party from the principle of
interference with free contract in the open market. In England a thing
is worth what it will fetch. It is not so in Ireland.

A tenant can never be evicted unless a whole year's rent is due. The
landlord might want the land for himself or for his son, but he cannot
have it. The tenant must have six months' notice of eviction, and when
actually evicted can recover possession by paying what he owes, and in
that case the landlord becomes liable to the tenant for the crops on
the land, and for the profits he (the landlord) _might_ have made. In
America the length of notice preceding eviction varies from three days
to thirty, the latter only in the State of Maine. Yet in Ireland, where
we hear so much of brutal evictions, six months' notice is required, a
year's rent being due, this boon having been conferred by a "Coercion"
Government. An Irish tenant even when voluntarily leaving his farm must
be compensated by the landlord for all improvements made by himself or
his predecessors, or must be permitted to sell his improvements to the
incoming tenant. The tenant-right of a small farm is sometimes a
surprising sum. The moonlighting case I investigated at Newcastlewest,
Co. Limerick, arose from a tenant-right transaction, William Quirke
having bid L590 for the tenant-right of forty-nine acres formerly held
by J. Dore who was selling, as against L400 bid by Dore's cousin.
Quirke and three of his family were therefore shot in the legs, by way
of impre